Govt. not giving up on Lake Malawi row

The government of Malawi has yet again made it clear no part of Lake Malawi will be shared with any nation, as the wrangle over the water body rages on.

This comes as government has confirmed it will be represented at a two-day meeting from 11 July to 12 July in South Africa where it is expected that Malawi and Tanzania which claims it owns the said part will hear from mediators under the High Level Mediation Team (HLMT).

The HLMT is led by Mozambique’s former President Joaquim Chissano. It also includes Thabo Mbeki, former President of the Republic of South Africa, and Festus Mogae, former President of the Republic of Botswana.

According to a press statement released by government on Monday, Malawi will at the meeting maintain its stand as outlined in previous submissions it made to the HLMT, that the ‘boundary is the shoreline of Lake Malawi as established by Article 1(2) of the 1890 Anglo-German Treaty.’

This meeting comes after a planned one failed to take place in May this year.

“The Government of the Republic of Malawi, shall restate its position on the boundary of Lake Malawi and expects that the HLMT will pronounce itself on the fundamental question on where the boundary lies between the two countries, following the submissions by the two countries at the onset of the mediation process. The Malawi Government wishes to assure the general public that it will do everything possible not to give up even a single inch of its territory,” reads the statement in part.

In the last meeting held in Maputo, Mozambique, from 20th to 21st March, 2014, the two nations submitted their respective positions and agreed that the HLMT should first establish the position of the boundary between the two countries.

Earlier this year, Malawi President Peter Mutharika spoke at the opening of the 4th ordinary session of Pan-African Parliament in Johannesburg, South Africa where he called for the need for nations to avoid causing rows over borders.

This was in reference to the longstanding row over part of the Lake Malawi which Tanzania claims it owns.

Mutharika is also on record as having said the whole of the lake belongs to Malawi and that it is not negotiable.

Besides that, President John Magufuli of Tanzania has been saying that part of Lake Malawi belongs to Tanzania.

Tanzania’s High Commissioner, Victoria Mwakasege, said her nation intends to fully benefit from resources from the water body as Malawi has plans to drill oil and source water from Salima to Lilongwe.

Media reports in Malawi quoted her as saying that Tanzania still cares for talks but would want to benefit from the lake – something that lengthens their five year stand that they own part of the Lake.

“In as far as we are concerned we would want to benefit from the resources. We are aware Malawi is starting to drill oil from the lake,” she is quoted by a local paper.

Malawi earlier this year protested to the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) over a new map being promoted by Tanzania showing that the East African nation owns part of the lake.

The Lake Malawi dispute started way back in the 1960s but the current wrangle began after Malawi awarded licences to various companies to search for oil and gas on the lake.